Where’s the grace?

     On a recent Sunday afternoon, I was out for my daily walk.  That day I was heading for the Seawall, crossing the boulevard at 29^th Street.  The pedestrian “Walk” signal started counting down the seconds available for crossing.  Halfway across the street, I met a woman walking in the other direction.  I wished her, “good afternoon.”  She smiled in response, but then said, “Eighteen seconds?  Where’s the grace?”

     What a great question!  I hadn’t given it much thought and had just taken it for granted that the people who program traffic signals and control traffic around the island must have conducted several studies, hired consultants, and figured out that eighteen seconds was exactly the right amount of time for a pedestrian to occupy the crosswalk on a public roadway.  After all, the roadway is designed for vehicles, right?  Pedestrians are just tolerated.  Cross from one side to the other in eighteen seconds or risk getting run over by a vehicle.

     Now that my consciousness has been raised by another pedestrian, I can’t cross the street without hearing her question, “Where’s the grace?” Maybe I’ll suggest to the City Manager that reprogramming the lights with a longer grace period would be consistent with the City Council’s ongoing mission to make Galveston a more pedestrian-friendly city.

     Meanwhile, back at the Church, it occurs to me that it would be a good discipline for a Christian to ask this question daily about other areas of life.  Where’s the grace?  We could all benefit from a lot more of it.

     Where’s the grace – in my life, in the life of my community of faith, in my family, in my neighborhood, in the political campaign, in the actions of my government, in my workplace, in my classroom, in my relationship with my God?

     Because by our Baptism we are children of God by grace and adoption, we are supposed to know about grace and spread it around. We are offered a healthy diet of grace through the Word of God and the Holy Eucharist.  Those are provisions God has supplied so that we will never be starved for grace.  We receive the means of grace so that we can become a means of grace in the world around us.  When we become conscious of a lack of grace, we have an opportunity to change that situation.  When we experience a moment of grace, we have an opportunity to celebrate it.  Think about it!  This is a world-changing opportunity we have here.

                                                                   The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.